I hosted a webinar a few weeks ago about Artificial Intelligence and how it might affect data professionals. It was an interesting discussion with Kellyn Pot'Vin-Gorman and Brian Randell, with all of us having slightly different perspectives. Overall, we all agree AI is amazing and can be a useful tool for data professionals.

This week I've been in Redmond at the MVP Summit, and AI has been a topic among many MVPs. Lots of jokes have been told, no shortage of which dealt with getting rid of staff. Not that these MVPs want to see less staff, but they know that executives and managers might see all the AI hype about how GitHub CoPilot writes code and think they need less developers.

I don't know if that is really how executives will view the world, especially as most IT departments have more work than resources to complete their list of tasks. I can see AI helping get more done, which might mean less hiring (or slower hiring) in the future.

There was an article this week talking about ways to protect your job in the age of AI hype. It was interesting in that the suggestions all revolve around bringing more value to your job. The suggestions about working in specialized areas, complex areas, being a better employee with documentation, these are all things that I've done in my career. It's what I also see from many MVPs.

Maybe the most interesting item was to think about incorporating AI into your work now. It's not necessarily an expert on your work, but it is a tool. As the models absorb more information and become better trained, they can be a level to help you get more work done. They can assist you in tedious work, which is something many of us can benefit from.

I am looking forward to getting access to CoPilot and keeping an AI tool up on my desktop, learning how it might help me, and maybe more importantly, where it won't help me.

I can't stop this trend, but I can better understand it and learn how it might fit with my daily work. Knowing that helps me better understand how I might have an informed and rational discussion with management about the advantages or disadvantages of this new technology.